Post by Funkytown on Oct 13, 2017 17:27:32 GMT -6
Made In Minnesota by Adam Thielen
Must read stuff right here: www.theplayerstribune.com/adam-thielen-vikings/
Like most 23-year-olds fresh out of college, I had a job interview.
It was May 2013, and my senior year of football at Minnesota State–Mankato had ended a few months earlier. I still wasn’t 100% sure what I was going to do after college, but I knew a guy who knew a guy at a place called Patterson Dental, and he put in a good word for me.
The job was … well, basically, I’d be selling dental equipment. It was actually more of an internship, but it was a pretty decent opportunity at a really good company. So I put on a suit and tie and went in for an interview. It was a good interview. But I remember that at one point, the interviewer asked me one of those cliché interview questions.
“If you could have any job in the world, what would it be?”
He’d obviously know I was lying if I said, “To be in dental equipment sales!” So I told him the truth.
“To play in the NFL.”
The guy’s head kind of popped up, and he gave me this … look. I don’t know how to really describe it, but I knew that look because it was one I had seen before — only a few months earlier, actually. It was a few days after my last college game and I came home to my girlfriend Caitlin — who’s now my wife — and said, “You know what? I want to play in the NFL, so I’m gonna give it a shot and see what happens.”
And she gave me that same look.
Like, Really?
Then she said, “You sure you don’t want to just get a normal job?”
She didn’t say it in an unsupportive way, but more like … let’s be realistic. And she was right. She’s always been there to balance me out — never lets me get too high or too low — and this was a perfect example of that. Making it to the NFL was pretty unlikely. I was an unknown wide receiver from a small Division II school. I wasn’t on any NFL teams’ radars. If I was going to go for it, I needed a backup plan. So I decided that I would start training, but at the same time, I’d also look around for other jobs in case it didn’t work out.
Patterson Dental was a backup plan.
And later that week, when I went to Vikings rookie camp, I would find out whether or not I needed it.
Growing up in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, I was a huge Vikings fan. When I would play football in my backyard, I would pretend I was Cris Carter or Randy Moss. It was watching those guys and that ’98 Vikings team that really made me fall in love with football and want to be a wide receiver.
But looking back now, I realize that when I watched them play, I never really thought about what it probably took for those guys to make it to that level — or what it would take for me to get there.
What I’ve learned is that everybody’s journey is different.
It was May 2013, and my senior year of football at Minnesota State–Mankato had ended a few months earlier. I still wasn’t 100% sure what I was going to do after college, but I knew a guy who knew a guy at a place called Patterson Dental, and he put in a good word for me.
The job was … well, basically, I’d be selling dental equipment. It was actually more of an internship, but it was a pretty decent opportunity at a really good company. So I put on a suit and tie and went in for an interview. It was a good interview. But I remember that at one point, the interviewer asked me one of those cliché interview questions.
“If you could have any job in the world, what would it be?”
He’d obviously know I was lying if I said, “To be in dental equipment sales!” So I told him the truth.
“To play in the NFL.”
The guy’s head kind of popped up, and he gave me this … look. I don’t know how to really describe it, but I knew that look because it was one I had seen before — only a few months earlier, actually. It was a few days after my last college game and I came home to my girlfriend Caitlin — who’s now my wife — and said, “You know what? I want to play in the NFL, so I’m gonna give it a shot and see what happens.”
And she gave me that same look.
Like, Really?
Then she said, “You sure you don’t want to just get a normal job?”
She didn’t say it in an unsupportive way, but more like … let’s be realistic. And she was right. She’s always been there to balance me out — never lets me get too high or too low — and this was a perfect example of that. Making it to the NFL was pretty unlikely. I was an unknown wide receiver from a small Division II school. I wasn’t on any NFL teams’ radars. If I was going to go for it, I needed a backup plan. So I decided that I would start training, but at the same time, I’d also look around for other jobs in case it didn’t work out.
Patterson Dental was a backup plan.
And later that week, when I went to Vikings rookie camp, I would find out whether or not I needed it.
Growing up in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, I was a huge Vikings fan. When I would play football in my backyard, I would pretend I was Cris Carter or Randy Moss. It was watching those guys and that ’98 Vikings team that really made me fall in love with football and want to be a wide receiver.
But looking back now, I realize that when I watched them play, I never really thought about what it probably took for those guys to make it to that level — or what it would take for me to get there.
What I’ve learned is that everybody’s journey is different.
Must read stuff right here: www.theplayerstribune.com/adam-thielen-vikings/
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... and neither is this Chris guy.